Penn State’s Board Reportedly Has Considered Going Private

March 15, 2012, 10:34 am

(Updated at 12:04 p.m. with comment from Penn State.)

After months of promising greater transparency, Pennsylvania State University trustees now say they see the appeal of possibly privatizing the institution, according to reports in two Pennsylvania newspapers, The Patriot News and The Morning Call. Karen Peetz, the board’s new chairwoman, said she met recently with the chairman of Cornell University’s board and found the Ivy League institution’s governance model—a private university with some public components—of “great interest.”

In response to questions about its commitment to being a public university, Penn State issued a statement saying “Penn State is not exploring how to become private. Penn State is exploring how to remain public in the face of declining public funds.” The statement said Ms. Peetz’s meeting with the Cornell board chairman “was only a discussion of ideas and nothing more. Karen Peetz did not endorse Penn State adopting the Cornell model or any particular model. All she said was that the board is listening to various ideas.”

Penn State’s board has been criticized as insufficiently transparent in the wake of allegations that Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach at the university, sexually abused young boys, and that Penn State officials responded inadequately to the charges.

I think they are trying to dump as much of their expenses as possible on the taxpayers while at the same time limiting their accountability to the public as much as they can. They’ll probably become a “state related” school like Temple or Pitt.